{"id":292279,"date":"2026-04-30T00:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292279\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:30:08","slug":"californias-chief-technology-officer-stepped-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292279\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s chief technology officer stepped down"},"content":{"rendered":"

California\u2019s top technology leadership ranks continue to shift \u2014 first, with the retirement of former state Chief Information Officer Liana Bailey-Crimmins<\/a> in March, followed by state Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Porat.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan-Porat\"Jonathan Porat (State of California)<\/p>\n

Porat stepped down from his role at the California Department of Technology on April 21, said Diana Nguyen, a spokesperson for the department, following nearly three-and-a-half years in state government. He joined the agency in December 2022 as chief technology innovation officer before being named CTO<\/a> the following year.<\/p>\n

During his tenure, Porat helped shape California\u2019s statewide digital strategy. He played a role in the state\u2019s emerging technology work, including early artificial intelligence pilot projects like Poppy<\/a>, an AI-powered digital assistant designed for use by state employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the guiding principle behind Poppy has been: for state workers, by state workers, built by us here at the state. Everything is built around the idea that a state worker is using it,\u201d Porat said in an interview about Poppy in February. \u201cIt\u2019s great that not only can we have an AI tool that\u2019s this accessible, but it\u2019s an AI tool that\u2019s secure and really grounded and built off of state data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before joining California, Porat served for four years as a technology client engagement manager with the City of Seattle and held a role as an economist with the U.S. Small Business Administration\u2019s advocacy office. According to his LinkedIn profile<\/a>, he started in government as a student volunteer at the Office of Management and Budget\u2019s information and regulatory affairs office before serving for a year as one of OMB\u2019s policy analysts.<\/p>\n

The state has not named Porat\u2019s permanent replacement. His departure adds to a number of leadership changes ahead of California\u2019s gubernatorial transition this year (Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited), which is sure to bring shifts in the state\u2019s technology strategy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sophia<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Sophia Fox-Sowell
\n\t\t\tSophia Fox-Sowell reports on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and government regulation for StateScoop. She was previously a multimedia producer for CNET, where her coverage focused on private sector innovation in food production, climate change and space through podcasts and video content. She earned her bachelor\u2019s in anthropology at Wagner College and master\u2019s in media innovation from Northeastern University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California\u2019s top technology leadership ranks continue to shift \u2014 first, with the retirement of former state Chief Information…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,41598,87822,47324,124575,10020,17963],"class_list":["post-292279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-chief-technology-officer","tag-department-of-technology","tag-government-technology","tag-jonathan-porat","tag-state-government","tag-technology-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}